La Liga 2016-17: Josep Bartomeu says Lionel Messi has a contract for life at FC Barcelona
Barcelona supporters will be pleased to hear that the club is working on offering Lionel Messi a new contract in the coming months. Club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu has revealed that Messi has a contract for life at the club and the negotiations will start quickly.
Lionel Messi has a contract until June 2018 but the club wants to extend it till at least 2021.
Lionel Messi has reportedly been garnering interest from Manchester City since Pep Guardiola took over the reins at City. Messi had also earlier revealed that he is open to the idea of returning to his homeland to play for Newell's Old Boys.
To keep potential suitors away, Bartomeu has started work on a new deal for the five-time Ballon d'Or winner as he said, " Messi has all the years he wants with Barcelona. Lionel Messi is the best ever to play football in the history of the world and he plays with us."
The club president continued, "We are very happy, he is very important for the club, he's very important for the fans, he's very important for football itself. Lionel Messi in the next coming months, of course, we are going to talk with him because he knows, he already knows that he has a contract forever. There is not a limit with him. The limit will be decided by him and right now he is 29 years old, he is talented, he is ambitious, and he's in perfect shape to continue for many more years."
Along with Messi, the club has confirmed that new deals are in place for Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic to stay at Nou Camp for the foreseeable future. Earlier in July, Neymar signed a new five-year deal with the Catalans which entered him into the big league – the top five highest earning footballers in the world.
Lionel Messi went back on his earlier decision to retire from the Argentinian national team but missed their World Cup qualifier against Venezuela due to a groin injury. The 29-year-old returned early from national duty to Barcelona but the club has not yet disclosed if Messi will miss the game against Alaves.
The Argentine had earlier posted on social media that his injury is not so serious. Many journalists have criticised Messi for missing Argentina's game against Venezuela as they see it as a lack of commitment from the 29-year-old.